You can expect a lot of nifty things from Apple’s media event on Thursday.

A Retina display MacBook Air probably won’t be one of them.

Per Re/code and AppleInsider, sources close to the story have stated that the rumored new MacBook Air will not debut. He did, however, reiterate that the company is in fact planning to launch a new iMac with a high-resolution Retina display.

The absence of the new MacBook Air is largely in line with the latest rumors, which have indicated the device won’t be available in time for this holiday season. Instead, it’s been reported that the new ultraportable notebook with a Retina display won’t see the light of day until 2015.

You may have to wait a little longer for the 12-inch Retina display MacBook Air.

Per AppleInsider and Taiwan’s Economic Daily News, current rumors have it that Apple’s 12-inch Retina display MacBook Air could be delayed until 2015 given processor supply constraints, while the release of the next-generation 11-inch and 13-inch models will be on time as partner suppliers in East Asia are receiving parts for mass production.

The current stories claim a rumored 12-inch MacBook Air may see its release date pushed back to late 2014 or early 2015, while parts for Apple’s refreshed 11- and 13-inch MacBook Air models are now being shipped to partner supplier Quanta ahead of production next month.

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According to C|NET, a report sent out on Tuesday from French blog site MacGeneration (use Google Translate) says that the iMac lineup is getting some speed upgrades to be announced as early as next week. Expectations for the base versions of all four of the iMac models are as follows;

The $1,499 21.5-inch 2.9 GHz version would see its CPU speed inch up to a full 3 GHz, while its Turbo Boost feature, which automatically manages individual cores of the processor for better performance and power efficiency, would rise from 3.6 GHz to 3.7 GHz.

The $1,299 21.5-inch 2.7 GHz would undergo no changes, according to MacGeneration.

The $1,799 27-inch 3.2 GHz variant would increase its processor speed to 3.3 GHz accompanied by a Turbo Speed bump from 3.6 GHz to 3.7 GHz.

The $1,999 27-inch 3.4GHz model would rise in CPU speed to 3.5 GHz, while the Turbo Speed’s performance would grow from 3.8 GHz to 3.9 GHz.

While the information provided showed no evidence of these iMacs sporting Retina Displays, some recent rumors say that code within the early betas of OS X 10.10 Yosemite hints that a Retina Display may find its way into an iMac in the near future.

If you’re hesitant about updating to the recently-released OS X 10.9.3, there may be good news if you’re a recent Apple notebook owner.

Per French news site Mac4Ever and MacRumors, updating to 10.9.3 increases available VRAM from 1024MB to 1536MB, boosting the size of the shared memory, possibly to further improve 4K performance on the most recent Retina Display MacBook Pro and MacBook Air notebooks..

The change can be seen in the Graphics/Displays section of the System Report accessible via “About This Mac”. Apple has not yet updated its support page to reflect the new VRAM limits, continuing to list 1GB of system memory as the maximum. The update was also not mentioned in the 10.9.3 release notes.

The 10.9.3 update also included enhanced support for 4K displays and restored the ability to sync contacts and calendars between Macs and iOS devices over USB.

Finally, it’s been reported that some machines with HD 4000 graphics have seen a VRAM boost as well, namely the 2012 Mac Mini, which now has a maximum VRAM of 1024MB, up from 768MB.

If you’ve seen this improvement or any significant changes on your end since installing OS X 10.9.3, please let us know in the comments.

On Tuesday, Apple released the latest build of OS X 10.9.3, designated ‘Build 13D43′. For this build, developers are being asked to focus their efforts on testing Graphics Drivers, Audio, Mail, Contacts and Calendar sync over USB in iTunes, and Safari. 10.9.3 also adds support for 4K displays, which offers improved readability and 60Hz output from a Retina display MacBook Pro.

Build releases are appearing closer together now, this one only a week after the previous seed. This is typically a sign that Apple is close to locking the update down in preparation for its release, so be on the lookout for 10.9.3 showing up in the App Store soon. Per usual, we recommend that you make sure to backup your Macs before applying the update, and running Repair Permissions from Disk Utility before and after the update is a good idea too.

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Tuesday, Apple finally retired the iPad 2, replacing it with the 16 GB 4th Generation iPad. “But wasn’t the 4th Gen iPad retired?”, you ask. Yes, the 4th Generation iPad was officially discontinued in October of last year, but it appears Apple felt it needed a new lease on life when compared to the aging iPad 2. Like the original iPad mini (still available) the 4G iPad is ONLY available in a 16 GB version, now acting as Apple’s entry-level “large” tablet device. This now means that the original iPad mini has the only non-retina display among the iPad and iPhone lineups. The iPad 2 was also the last device in the iPad line to sport the old 30-pin dock connector, leaving the iPhone 4S as the sole device in Apple’s current product line to still have one.

If you stacked one of every different mobile device case end to end, I bet it would reach Mars. Ok, maybe not, but there are an overwhelming number of choices for protecting your device. Even with all the options, ranging in price from just a few dollars to hundreds of dollars, many people choose not to get a case of any kind. With the first couple of iPhones, especially the original, even I was reluctant to cover up Apple’s designs with some ugly chunk of plastic. Once Apple started covering it all in glass, starting with the iPhone 4, I had to rethink this policy and have had some kind of case ever since. It doesn’t hurt that if you choose to sell your device later, a case can keep it looking almost new and fetch a higher resale price.

Back in November we mentioned Apple’s plans to start offering in-store screen replacements for the iPhone 5S and 5C. This week, Apple started its roll-out of iPhone 5C repairs, so if you’ve got an iPhone 5C with a cracked or broken screen, the Geniuses at the local Apple Store can replace it while you wait, rather than sending it out. This makes two models that can be repaired in-store, the iPhone 5 and now the 5C. The 5S, for now, still needs to be sent into Apple for repairs, possibly due to the added complications of working around the Touch-ID sensor/home button. No news yet on when the 5S plan will get rolled out. As we reported before, the in-store replacement cost should be $150, with the price being $80 if your iPhone is covered by the original warranty or an AppleCare plan. The policy should be rolled out to all stores by the end of this week, but could take a little longer if the store is not in or near a large city.

It’s that time of year again, when everyone is scrambling to fill their gift giving list for the holidays, and for those that have tech geeks in their family or other circles, it is getting more and more difficult to find that perfect gift. Thankfully it is also the time when every magazine and blog is posting their holiday gift guides, and the PowerPage is no exception. So here then are 10 or so items that aren’t crazy expensive, culled from other gift guides or my own product wish list, that offer a nice range of items and that I wouldn’t mind seeing under the tree (if I didn’t have it already).

Rumors of a new, larger iPad for 2014 have started to get some traction. AppleInsider cites the Chinese publication, PadNews, which says iThing manufacturer Foxconn has built five prototype versions of an alleged 12.9-inch tablet featuring 2K and/or 4K screen resolutions. It is being suggested that a 2K resolution version would be released first, as early as April, with a 4K version following later in the year. For reference, 2K resolution is 2048 × 1152 with a total of 2,359,296 pixels, and 4K resolution is 4096 × 2304 with 9,437,184 pixels. The Retina display on the current iPad Air is 2048 x 1536 pixel resolution, which is generally considered a 2K display.